19TH SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME
"BE PATIENT WHEN YOU HOPE FOR SOMETHING BUT CAN'T SEE GOD AT WORK"
> All the readings together
Recorded Sunday, August 11, 2013 at Christ the Redeemer Catholic Church in Thibodaux, Louisiana. © Fr. Mark Toups, 2013
"THE STORMS OF LIFE" - PART 2 OF 3
20TH SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME
"THREE THINGS TO REMEMBER WHEN YOU'RE IN A STORM"
Recorded Sunday, August 11, 2013 at Christ the Redeemer Catholic Church in Thibodaux, Louisiana. © Fr. Mark Toups, 2013
20TH SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME
"THREE THINGS TO REMEMBER WHEN YOU'RE IN A STORM"
> All the readings together
INTRODUCTION
INTRODUCTION TO DAILY LIFE
Just like there are storms in the natural world, we experience storms in our supernatural world. Sometimes we go through "storms" in life.
WHERE DO WE SEE THIS IN THE SCRIPTURES?
In today's first reading from the Book of the Prophet Jeremiah we see Jeremiah thrown into the cistern.
There are three things that we can learn about life's storms that can help us when we're in them.
Nature's storms always end ... and so too will the "storms" of life. They too will come to an end.
NO. 2: STORMS WILL REVEAL WHAT YOU ARE ATTACHED TO
Your priorities will come to the forefront during the "storm"
NO. 3: GOD CAN BRING FREEDOM IN OUR LIVES, EVEN IN THE STORM
Often times we have to let go of the very things that guarantee our unfreedom
FOR YOUR PRAYER THIS WEEK: SCRIPTURE PASSAGES ABOUT STORMS
MONDAY: Matthew 14:22-33
INTRODUCTION
While fishing this past week, a storm popped up. I fished through it, mainly because I didn't want to loose my fish.
INTRODUCTION TO DAILY LIFE
WHERE DO WE SEE THIS IN THE SCRIPTURES?
In today's first reading from the Book of the Prophet Jeremiah we see Jeremiah thrown into the cistern.
CORE MESSAGE: THE HOMILY IN ONE SENTENCE
There are three things that we can learn about life's storms that can help us when we're in them.
NO. 1: STORMS HAVE A BEGINNING AND AN END
Nature's storms always end ... and so too will the "storms" of life. They too will come to an end.
NO. 2: STORMS WILL REVEAL WHAT YOU ARE ATTACHED TO
Your priorities will come to the forefront during the "storm"
Often times we have to let go of the very things that guarantee our unfreedom
FOR YOUR PRAYER THIS WEEK: SCRIPTURE PASSAGES ABOUT STORMS
MONDAY: Matthew 14:22-33
TUESDAY: Matthew 8:23-27
WEDNESDAY: Psalm 23
THURSDAY: Exodus 14:10-31
FRIDAY: Psalm 22
SATURDAY: Read the readings for next weekend's Mass: click here for the readings
Recorded Sunday, August 18, 2013 at Christ the Redeemer Catholic Church in Thibodaux, Louisiana. © Fr. Mark Toups, 2013
"THE STORMS OF LIFE" - PART 3 OF 3
21ST SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME
"WHY DOES GOD ALLOW TRIALS IN OUR SPIRITUAL LIFE?"
WEDNESDAY: Psalm 23
THURSDAY: Exodus 14:10-31
FRIDAY: Psalm 22
SATURDAY: Read the readings for next weekend's Mass: click here for the readings
Recorded Sunday, August 18, 2013 at Christ the Redeemer Catholic Church in Thibodaux, Louisiana. © Fr. Mark Toups, 2013
"THE STORMS OF LIFE" - PART 3 OF 3
21ST SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME
"WHY DOES GOD ALLOW TRIALS IN OUR SPIRITUAL LIFE?"
> All the readings together
INTRODUCTION
Thank you for your intercession and support this past week as I made my annual silent retreat. The retreat was filled with grace ... a wonderful time to be with the Lord, rest contemplatively in the silence, and receive a renewed intimacy with the One I love.
CONNECT INTRODUCTION TO DAILY LIFE
WHAT DO THE SCRIPTURES SAY TO US?
"Brothers and sisters, you have forgotten the exhortation addressed to you as children: 'My son, do not disdain the discipline of the Lord or lose heart when reproved by him; for whom the Lord loves, he disciplines; he scourges every son he acknowledges.' Endure your trials as 'discipline'; God treats you as sons. For what 'son' is there whom his father does not discipline? At the time, all discipline seems a cause not for joy but for pain, yet later it brings the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who are trained by it." (Hebrews 12:5-6,11)
"The discipline of the Lord, my son, do not spurn; do not disdain his reproof; For whom the Lord loves he reproves, as a father, the son he favors." (Proverbs 3:11-12)
"So you must know in your heart that, even as a man disciplines his son, so the Lord, your God, disciplines you." (Deuteronomy 8:5)
"but since we are judged by [the] Lord, we are being disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world." (1st Corinthians 11:32)
CORE MESSAGE: THE HOMILY IN ONE SENTENCE
Trials can be a fruitful part of the spiritual life.
THREE THINGS WE NEED TO REMEMBER ABOUT GOD
No. 1: God wants you to get Heaven more than anything else.
"in persons who are going from mortal sin to mortal sin, the enemy is ordinarily accustomed to propose apparent pleasures to them, leading them to imagine sensual delights and pleasures in order to hold them more and make them grow in their vices and sins. In these persons the good spirit uses a contrary method, stinging and biting their consciences through their rational power of moral judgment." (Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius of Loyola, no. 314)
No. 2: Sometimes God is revealing that a particular relationship needs to be removed so that temptation is removed.
No. 3: God wants all things in the dark to come to the light. We are as free as our secrets.
"For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light, for light produces every kind of goodness and righteousness and truth. Try to learn what is pleasing to the Lord. Take no part in the fruitless works of darkness; rather expose them, for it is shameful even to mention the things done by them in secret; but everything exposed by the light becomes visible, for everything that becomes visible is light. Therefore, it says: 'Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will give you light.'" (Ephesians 5:8-14)
"Likewise the enemy conducts himself as a false lover in wishing to remain secret and not be revealed. For a dissolute man who, speaking with evil intention, makes dishonorable advances to a daughter of a good father or a wife of a good husband, wishes his words and persuasions to be secret, and the contrary displeases him very much, when the daughter reveals to her father or the wife to her husband his false words and depraved intention, because he easily perceives that he will not be able to succeed with the undertaking begun. In the same way, when the enemy of human nature brings his wiles and persuasions to the just soul, he wishes and desires that they be received and kept in secret; but when one reveals them to one’s good confessor or to another spiritual person, who knows his deceits and malicious designs, it weighs on him very much, because he perceives that he will not be able to succeed with the malicious undertaking he has begun, since his manifest deceits have been revealed." (Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius of Loyola, no. 326)
CONCLUSION: GOING BACK TO THE CORE MESSAGE
Trials can be a fruitful part of the spiritual life.
INTRODUCTION
Thank you for your intercession and support this past week as I made my annual silent retreat. The retreat was filled with grace ... a wonderful time to be with the Lord, rest contemplatively in the silence, and receive a renewed intimacy with the One I love.
My retreat, while blessed, wasn't easy. Authentic love is honest. Part of an authentic relationship with God is allowing God to reveal the parts of our life the need to be brought into the light. As Fr. Walter Burghardt, S.J. often says: "Prayer is a long, loving, look at the real."
CONNECT INTRODUCTION TO DAILY LIFE
Today is week three of a three-part series on "Storms". In week 1 (Sunday, August 11) we talked about what to do when you really need God but can't "see" Him in your midst. Last week, in week 2 (Sunday, August 18), we talked about the "storms" of life and what they teach us. Today, in week 3, we hear the Scriptures reminding us that "trials" are a part of our spiritual life: a somewhat necessary or fruitful part, of our spiritual life.
WHAT DO THE SCRIPTURES SAY TO US?
"Brothers and sisters, you have forgotten the exhortation addressed to you as children: 'My son, do not disdain the discipline of the Lord or lose heart when reproved by him; for whom the Lord loves, he disciplines; he scourges every son he acknowledges.' Endure your trials as 'discipline'; God treats you as sons. For what 'son' is there whom his father does not discipline? At the time, all discipline seems a cause not for joy but for pain, yet later it brings the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who are trained by it." (Hebrews 12:5-6,11)
"The discipline of the Lord, my son, do not spurn; do not disdain his reproof; For whom the Lord loves he reproves, as a father, the son he favors." (Proverbs 3:11-12)
"So you must know in your heart that, even as a man disciplines his son, so the Lord, your God, disciplines you." (Deuteronomy 8:5)
"but since we are judged by [the] Lord, we are being disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world." (1st Corinthians 11:32)
CORE MESSAGE: THE HOMILY IN ONE SENTENCE
Trials can be a fruitful part of the spiritual life.
THREE THINGS WE NEED TO REMEMBER ABOUT GOD
No. 1: God wants you to get Heaven more than anything else.
No. 2: God longs for us to live in communion with Him. However, God never forces Himself on us. We have to choose to choose God.
No. 3: God never desires our suffering for the sake of suffering. God always and only desires our communion with Him. However, God will do whatever if takes for us to choose communion with Him.
THREE THINGS WE NEED TO REMEMBER ABOUT TRIALS
Sometimes you'll experience trials in life because other people have issues. That's not what we're talking about. Other times you'll experience trials because evil exists. That's not what we're talking about. Those two instances would be more associated with the "storms" that we talked about last week. We're specifically talking about the "trials" that are alluded to in Hebrews: "the discipline of the Lord" and "Endure your trials as 'discipline'; God treats you as sons. For what 'son' is there whom his father does not discipline?"
No. 1: Sometimes God is trying to get your attention, especially if there is an area of our life that needs conversion.
No. 3: God never desires our suffering for the sake of suffering. God always and only desires our communion with Him. However, God will do whatever if takes for us to choose communion with Him.
THREE THINGS WE NEED TO REMEMBER ABOUT TRIALS
Sometimes you'll experience trials in life because other people have issues. That's not what we're talking about. Other times you'll experience trials because evil exists. That's not what we're talking about. Those two instances would be more associated with the "storms" that we talked about last week. We're specifically talking about the "trials" that are alluded to in Hebrews: "the discipline of the Lord" and "Endure your trials as 'discipline'; God treats you as sons. For what 'son' is there whom his father does not discipline?"
No. 1: Sometimes God is trying to get your attention, especially if there is an area of our life that needs conversion.
"in persons who are going from mortal sin to mortal sin, the enemy is ordinarily accustomed to propose apparent pleasures to them, leading them to imagine sensual delights and pleasures in order to hold them more and make them grow in their vices and sins. In these persons the good spirit uses a contrary method, stinging and biting their consciences through their rational power of moral judgment." (Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius of Loyola, no. 314)
No. 2: Sometimes God is revealing that a particular relationship needs to be removed so that temptation is removed.
No. 3: God wants all things in the dark to come to the light. We are as free as our secrets.
"For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light, for light produces every kind of goodness and righteousness and truth. Try to learn what is pleasing to the Lord. Take no part in the fruitless works of darkness; rather expose them, for it is shameful even to mention the things done by them in secret; but everything exposed by the light becomes visible, for everything that becomes visible is light. Therefore, it says: 'Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will give you light.'" (Ephesians 5:8-14)
"Likewise the enemy conducts himself as a false lover in wishing to remain secret and not be revealed. For a dissolute man who, speaking with evil intention, makes dishonorable advances to a daughter of a good father or a wife of a good husband, wishes his words and persuasions to be secret, and the contrary displeases him very much, when the daughter reveals to her father or the wife to her husband his false words and depraved intention, because he easily perceives that he will not be able to succeed with the undertaking begun. In the same way, when the enemy of human nature brings his wiles and persuasions to the just soul, he wishes and desires that they be received and kept in secret; but when one reveals them to one’s good confessor or to another spiritual person, who knows his deceits and malicious designs, it weighs on him very much, because he perceives that he will not be able to succeed with the malicious undertaking he has begun, since his manifest deceits have been revealed." (Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius of Loyola, no. 326)
CONCLUSION: GOING BACK TO THE CORE MESSAGE
Trials can be a fruitful part of the spiritual life.
FOR YOUR PRAYER THIS WEEK: PSALMS TO PRAY WITH DURING TRIALS
MONDAY: Psalm 46
MONDAY: Psalm 46
TUESDAY: Psalm 68
WEDNESDAY: Psalm 139
THURSDAY: Psalm 103
FRIDAY: Psalm 131
SATURDAY: Read the readings for next weekend's Mass: click here for the readings
Recorded Sunday, August 25, 2013 at Christ the Redeemer Catholic Church in Thibodaux, Louisiana. © Fr. Mark Toups, 2013
> Click here for more information about Christ the Redeemer Catholic Church
WEDNESDAY: Psalm 139
THURSDAY: Psalm 103
FRIDAY: Psalm 131
SATURDAY: Read the readings for next weekend's Mass: click here for the readings
Recorded Sunday, August 25, 2013 at Christ the Redeemer Catholic Church in Thibodaux, Louisiana. © Fr. Mark Toups, 2013
